
by CrypticPotat0
Darian Vael was the son of a veteran duke. Being a middle son, he had spent his early days in luxury. But as he entered his twenties, an unfortunate chain of events caused him to lose everything he ever had. His family was killed, and his estate was taken away. Even his title was stripped away from him. Struggling with depression and self-destructive behavior, he joined a mercenary group in search of earning his gambling money. Just when he was getting used to his mercenary lifestyle, the veil between the planes was torn apart. From beyond the veil came demons, launching a full-scale invasion on humanity. He, along with the other mercenaries, joined the army to fight against the invasion. After two decades of war, humanity was driven to the brink of extinction. With the last remaining soldiers and leaders, he made his last stand and fell before the overwhelming power of the demons. Then he woke up in his father's manor as a seventeen-year-old, as if his entire life were a very long nightmare. Thinking he had received a second chance, he vowed to save his family and humanity, to change the destiny of the world itself. But he soon found out that altering fate is not as easy as he thought. As his actions spiral into deadly reactions from his enemies, he struggles to maintain his sanity and keep his loved ones safe. What price does he have to pay for trying to alter fate? Can destiny really be altered? Is humanity doomed to be extinct? What to expect:- Weak to strong and struggling MC- Dark fantasy novel with descriptions of blood, gore, and sex.- Only for adults. Consider yourself warned.- Sword fights and duels.- Release between chapters may be inconsistent. I have only completed fifteen chapters so far. But I promise I will complete it.- I may post this in other sites like Scribble Hub etc.
No streak history
One state-enhanced oracle order, filtered by each list. Observed Royal Road ranks remain separate ground truth.
Rank updated 13 Oct 2026, 11:48 UTC
Entry forecast updated 13 Oct 2026, 11:48 UTC
Ranking model: rs-public-oracle-state-v1
Forecast model: rs-model-entry-v1
Chart history contains only this ranking model's runs; legacy points are not spliced in.
Not enough recent follower history to estimate a shadow rank yet.
beats 84% of similar stories
not enough data yet
beats 5% of similar stories
Hidden gem — exposure is the bottleneck
Readers who find this story follow it at a high rate; there just aren't enough of them. In our cohort data, near-daily posting lifted the odds of reaching 25 followers from ~0% to 17% — more chapters, shoutout swaps and ads buy the eyeballs this conversion deserves.
Benchmarks: 8,060 active Royal Road stories, percentiles within the 2–4 chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views lifetime.